Glyptopetalum Thwaites

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves decussate or opposite, entire or crenulate; stipules caducous. Inflorescence simple or dichotomous cymes, axillary or extra axillary. Flowers bisexual, 4-merous. Calyx lobes spreading, outer pair smaller. Petals fleshy, smooth or with 2 small appendages or depressions inside. Disc fleshy, flat, 4-angular or cupular, enclosing the ovary and fused with it. Stamens 4, inserted on the disc; filaments very short; anthers divergent, connective thickened, dehiscent at the top. Ovary embedded in the disc, 4-loculed; style obscure; ovule 1 in each locule, pendulus. Fruits capsular; columella persistent; raphe branched, dehiscing loculicidally, 4 or 3-1-seeded, globose. Seeds arillate.

Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mayanmar, Vietnam, China, Malesia; ca 20 species, 5 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Cymes 5-7-flowered; capsules 1.5 cm across below; leaves serrulate or crenate at least at apex

2

b. Cymes 3-flowered; capsules 1.5 cm across above; leaves entire

4

2a. Leaves 5-9 cm long, apex obtuse, margin entire or serrate just at apex

4. Glyptopetalum lawsonii

b. Leaves 10-15.5 cm long, apex acute or acuminate, margin serrate

3

3a. Leaves membranous; peduncle 2.5-4 cm long

5. Glyptopetalum zeylanicum

b. Leaves coriaceous; peduncle 1 cm long

3. Glyptopetalum griffithii

4a. Capsules obscruely 4-lobed

1. Glyptopetalum calocarpum

b. Capsules not lobed

2. Glyptopetalum grandiflorum

List of Lower Taxa